Sunshine

That is one epic moonshot!

2 minutes ago, Fiorina04 said:

Ilive in cornwall, i was walking to work (im a nurse) heading eastish with orion constalation more or less ahead of me, i hope i don't sound nuts but i saw lights traveling roughly west in the sky, i counted 37 of them almost in a straight line approximately 5 seconds apart any idea what that was? Looked to be too high for aircraft. 

Yes, you saw the starlink satellites, get used to those because there will be many more.

Indeed it is, Starlink nonsense.

Welcome! pose the question, i am willing to bet you saw a string of lights in the sky in neat rows, if so, its Starlink satellites from Elon Musk.

Amazing detail in this image.

Loving the contrast here.

2 hours ago, mikeDnight said:

What appears as CA can sometimes be caused by the eyepiece and not the scope, also, on bright objects like Venus or Sirius, atmospheric refraction can be an issue due to their brilliance and usually low angle. From personal experience with a 127mm version of your refractor, I can honestly say it was a true apo triplet with no visual CA and was a pretty impressive scope.

Thanks, i am sure you are perfectly correct and, i am pretty sure that my 3 nights of observing under fairly good conditions is by no means a platform from which to judge my scope just yet. Sometimes i get carried

away by something i observe, sound an alarm bell only to realize i was paranoid.

Thanks everyone! great info here, I decided I will not preoccupy myself with these perceived issues till I’ve had a much longer time to enjoy the scope. I’ve had instances where it floored me with breathtaking lunar views and a stunning trapezium. This thread will be invaluable for reference once I have given the scope a fair chance in a myriad of conditions over time. We all tend to be quick to judge our scopes and, point out what we fear may be flaws, I feel i am guilty of this before having allowed for enough time and trials.

31 minutes ago, johninderby said:

Would help to know which refractor are you using.  

Orion Eon 115mm triplet, 805mm FL, William optics dielectric diagonal, when needed I use a televue powermate 2.5 barlow (which is a great little toy). when observing the trapezium at 220 power, on a decent night, I can clearly make out E&F stars as the most delicate pinpoints, I guess I shouldn't worry too much.

After having some time with my refractor and, being able to more closely make observations, I have come across some phenomenon which I would like to better understand. First off, CA, it happens here but not there, mild here more severe there, for example, when looking at the moon, I notice barely any CA, I must really pay attention to see the thinnest most subtle yellowish line, not even sure if this is CA. On the other end of the spectrum, bright stars and, Venus, show clearly visible blue/red CA, not so much to ruin the experience but, unmistakable. It also seems to vary in intensity, assuming I am looking at the same star, depending on the day and elevation. Second phenomenon is focus, or maybe not focus at all but my own eyes, this one baffles me a bit, I find it easier to bring stars to a fine focus when at high power than when using low powers. Example, looking at the trapezium with my 9mm Morpheus at 88x (or double that when barlowed) I can bring stars to fine focus, even those delicate ones at the very threshold of vision appear as absolute beautiful pinpoints. By comparison, when using my 14 or 18mm eyepieces at 57 and 44X, bringing stars to points is more difficult, even when I think I am focussed, I get these small spikes which move depending on the orientation of my eye with respect to the glass, slight ocular shift will make spikes rotate around the star. Is this is a result of my eye, the eyepiece, both?.

there is one more conundrum to this, the smaller the star, even at lower powers, the less these spikes become an issue and the more they look like they are proper points without any spikes. That being said, if I were to summarize it, imagine looking at a cluster with stars of drastically different magnitude and, apparent sizes.  With my 9mm Morpheus, they all look like points, well focussed, now swap it for the 18mm AMP, suddenly, the smallest of those stars can be brought to a pinpoint focus but, the larger and brighter stars have those small spikes ( or do they all at low power but my eye cannot resolve the spikes on the smallest stars?) who knows.

Those are Starlink satellites launched by Elon must, he is ruining the night sky with that nonsense. The latest cluster of them is what you saw, they will become more and more spaced apart as days go by.

Strange looking lamp, looks like an IR heat lamp, obviously not but, looks like one.

Our Martian moon, I figured this would arouse some curiosity, a short while ago I was having  a joyous time observing the moon. Earth shine was so prominent I could easily make out a wealth of detail within it. Observing with my 115 Eon, my fav eyepiece by far for lunar is the Baader Morpheus 9mm, with a magnification of 88x,  72 degree FOV and, very comfortable eye relief, it is a very pleasant eyepiece for lunar. The last time I recall observing a waxing crescent moon, seeing was terrible but, tonight it is average to good, allowing for some truly fine views. I decided to use my phone adapter for some shots, it barely fits my eyepieces and required some rigging but it worked.

If you’re wondering why I used the title “Our Martian Moon” well, I was playing with the image in my phone and, I decided to use a tone which made it look like Mars. Just some toying as I have seen others do with lunar images. Tonight is a clear and beautiful night, I am settled onto my back porch and will soon make some tea, tonight will be special. Discovering this new scope and, for a short while forgetting the fact that I am a prisoner in my home. Tomorrow is a new day, I will have fun writing a report on my adventures tonight, I hope all of you can enjoy the sky tonight.

4 hours ago, Nicola Hannah Butterfield said:

That's what the lady I care for said.

Great minds think alike.

Love it, they should rename it to the UFO galaxy.

That is beautiful! i'm not sure how a "flat" would improve that, sounds like more work to me, look at it!

Totally understandable.

I really wish they would replace the word bortle, I refuse to say it. 

As always, your images are just beautiful.

Considering what i read here, maybe a 2" diagonal will be my next purchase. The idea of offsetting the extra weight by moving the OTA forward a bit is great, raising the viewing position a bit for observing near zenith.

I hope all you SGL friends are doing well, wish you all the best and keep healthy.

54 minutes ago, Louis D said:

More questions for you:

1. Do you have a 2" diagonal for the refractor?
2. What are you using for low power in the Starmaster Dob?

I have a large range of low power eyepieces that I've tried and used over the years, and I guess it depends on your preferences for eye relief, edge correction, apparent field of view, and true field of view which one I would recommend to you.

My refractor is a 115mm Eon, 805mm FL, the lowest power eyepiece I have is the 18mm APM ultra flat field. My diagonal is 1.25, not sure if there is much benefit to a 2" diagonal to accommodate maybe a single 2"eyepiece in ones collection. Maybe I am wrong, you can enlighten me on why I may want a 2" diagonal for mostly 1.25 eyepieces, I would love to hear from experienced refractor users. They are quite a bit heavier i'm guessing, adding more weight to the optical train I would like to avoid unless i'm really missing out. For certain my 14mm ES 82 is getting sold, I would like more eye relief, maybe ill replace it with a comparable FL Morpheus or, a particular line you might suggest. As for the low end, I think something in the 70-80 degree 25-30mm FL with half decent eye relief would be great. OH, I forgot to mention, I have a 2.5x TeleVue powermate also.

My 3 eyepieces as of now: ES 14mm 82, APM 18mm, Baader Morpheus 9mm and a 2.5x powermate.

Thanks for your recommendations!

I love it, its the moon shot Austin Powers or Andy Warhol would hang on their walls, flat out love the second one.

2 hours ago, celestron8g8 said:

That's a nice video Sub Dwarf . I saw in your video that you couldn't tell just how clear the skies are where you live ? DO you know about the Clear Sky Chart  :  http://www.cleardarksky.com/csk/   

If you don't then check it out and just below the chart is a town listing . Just find the closest one to you and use that one . Just click the square for the time which is military time and then you can check for clouds , seeing , and a few other items . If you already know it then great , just wanted to pass the info in case you didn't . Clear Skies !

Oh, the video is not mine, i am sharing it, trevor is a popular you tuber, every few days he releases a new video. have a look through his video history, he's well known.

Trevor's videos are always fun to watch, thats one huge refractor, the 150 Esprit.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Jsg73B9DII&t=238s

HUGE!! how much does that behemoth weigh?